Muneeb Ali, co-founder of the Bitcoin Layer2 network Stacks, says worries about quantum computing are keeping institutional money from flowing into Bitcoin. His point was blunt: the network needs a believable security upgrade roadmap if it wants investor confidence back.
On Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction podcast, Ali said, "Quantum concerns have already put a ceiling on Bitcoin’s growth." And he argued that this uncertainty could push lower-risk institutional investors to hold off on big buys until developers show a clear route to quantum-resistant security.
Ali says missing roadmap is weighing on confidence
Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer2 network built to bring smart contracts and decentralized applications to Bitcoin, and Ali helped found it. He argued that even if some Bitcoin supporters think the quantum threat is still far away and overstated, the disagreement itself can chip away at investor confidence when there is no credible upgrade roadmap.
Ali warned that Bitcoin could enter a higher-risk period if developers do not make meaningful progress on quantum-resistant security by 2028. Upgrades usually take years to roll out, he said. And users would still need extra time to move assets to new addresses.
2030 seen as a transition target, with AI possibly speeding up the timeline
Pointing to guidance from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, Ali said 2030 is the target date for a shift to quantum-safe security. But he also said progress in artificial intelligence could speed up quantum computer development and pull that date forward to 2029.
Ali conceded that some Bitcoin backers see the quantum threat as distant and think the concern is overblown. Still, he said that without a credible upgrade path, even basic disagreement over how urgent the threat is would be enough to shake investor confidence.
He says the risk would spread across crypto
Ali also said a quantum computer powerful enough to matter would more likely come out of a major research lab than from some unknown attacker. In his view, companies like Google and Microsoft have no reason to steal Bitcoin. But the quantum security threat would hit the wider crypto sector too.
"If Bitcoin gets hit, every downstream project gets hit," he said.
Developers are testing possible defenses
Developers are already trying out possible protections. In September, StarkWare said researchers reduced the computational cost of preparing an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction by 79% after a week-long optimization challenge.
That method does not require changes to Bitcoin’s consensus rules. So far, though, the cost reduction has only been confirmed in benchmarking tests.